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Middle School and High School Wiki's
Introduction This page is focused on providing examples of wikis used in the 6-12 grade range. We will try to provide a variety of different examples as well as elaborate as to what we think they provide a classroom. In my research, I have found 4 main ways that schools can use wikis to benefit their classroom: Library/research, collaboration between teachers, collaboration between students, and as a collaborative classroom webpage. Examples Library Wiki: http://springfieldlibrary.wikispaces.com/. This is a great example of a wiki used for a school library. The idea of having multiple people maintain a site like this opens up the possibilities for including as many resources for students as possible. The bulletin board style menu shows that they offer more than what I believe a typical school library provides. Collaboration between Teachers: http://msmathwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/27071816/Math%20Teacher%20Wiki . This wiki is focused on sharing lesson plans between math teachers. Obviously, it is not open for the public to edit, but the general idea is that you can find lessons that other math teachers have used. The idea of using a concept map comes up a couple of times, which is a great project, especially if the materials/rubric is pre-made! http://eplanks.wikispaces.com/home. I thought that this was a good wiki that was motivating to use web 2.0 at a high level. It is hosted by a group of teachers that have a project. They use different forms of technology to not only describe their journey, but also give the reasoning behind their goals and strategies. http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/home. Educational Oragami is one of the best known and most awarded wikis in existence. It has a focus on implementing technology in the classroom and addressing our pedagogy at the same time. Since 2008 they have exploded with a large amount of information as to how to use wikis, blogs, etc. in the classroom. https://secondarymathcommoncore.wikispaces.hcpss.org/. The Howard County Wiki is one that has been mentioned by our group from the beginning. As a math teacher, this is a page that I use regularly. It is one of the few resources around where the common core standards are laid out in an easy to read fashion. There are standards and unit plans available along with lessons for specific topics that have been shared. Collaboration between Students: http://pbl2006.wikispaces.com/. Although the site is a little old, it is still a good example of getting an entire group of students together on a single project. It seems the focus was on concept mapping and students were working in partners. http://os8thsoth.wikispaces.com/home. Another wiki project page that is a little old, but is a good example of junior high students from different schools collaborate on a project. http://world-cultures-6.wikispaces.com/home. This is a great 6th grade project where each student was responsible for a page on the wiki. The end result is pretty impressive in my opinion. The objective of the project was to educate the students how to do research for a project, but they did present interesting information about different cultures. Classroom Page: http://maggilit.wikispaces.com/home.This is an example of a wiki being used a classroom website. I think that the teacher did a great job in the organization of this site well as laying out the rules for the editing. If you were going to run a classroom wiki, you would have to be fully dedicated to it because you would be allowing your students to build your site. It seems like a risky proposition, but if you can teach your class responsibility, they can take a great deal of ownership with what they are learning. Conclusion Overall, the possibilities that a wiki could provide a classroom are impressive. From my perspective the teacher would have to be organized and dedicated to maintenance and keeping students on track. At the beginning of this project I had not contemplated the different ways a wiki could be used, but through the research that I did (which started out by searching "What is a wiki") I ran across many different resources that I can actually use in my classroom. The concept of having a "flat" classroom is intriguing. A wiki along with some other tools could make that possible, but the teachers would have to once again be committed to making sure that the goal stays clear. And the teachers would have to monitor that it doesn't turn into just another thing to do just to do it.